Race Reports from the Women: Team Champs

From Lauren Carter of the Open:

Pushing through the heat Andrea Bradshaw ran 30:46 and Anisa Arsenault finished the race in 31:26. Jacy Kruzel (31:34) kept Kate Pfeffer (31:44) in her sights when tired, helping both ladies finish strong. Trying hard to keep in step with them, Lauren Carter(31:57) struggled to the finish, kicking hard at the end. Casey DePasquale made her scoring debut with a time of 33:14. Though hot and sunny, Erin Conroy was proud to finish as the 10th Open Women’s scorer in a time of 33:18.

Natalie Sopic also had a solid race. Looking to go 7-minute pace, but underestimating the heat/humidity and previous week’s work load, Natalie was still able to stick to a 7:11 pace and enjoy the race. We have two honorable mentions today. The first goes to Marisa Galloway. Marisa raced her first triathlon in her hometown of Wildwood, NJ on Saturday. On her first time out Marisa finished 3rd! She is looking forward to racing a few more down the road. The second goes to Christina Argueta, who not only raced again on Sunday in the Maine Lobster Festival, but also won!

Congratulations to everyone who raced! I hope to see you all at 5th Ave Mile, possibly one of the most fun races of the year.

From Ani Go of the 40+:

In one of the biggest and most competitive races of the season, the Team Championship 5-Miler, the master’s 40+ women rise to the top like Aphrodite from the sea, floating to 2nd place!

Let’s cut to the chase (so to speak): scoring double points were Colleen “Lady Warrior” McGurk, badass Lady Elizabeth Lopes, and the baby to the 50+ team, the incredible PR Queen, Judy Stobbe. There was major representation from the 40+ women, including Teiko Shigezumi, Amy Kvilhaug, Roberta Little, and your little Captain Ani.

Ani Go

Photo: Jay Mojica

As always, the conditions for this race were less than ideal, a hot and hazy 80 degrees, so the general consensus was to take a technical approach. There were no PR’s this time, but there was plenty of True Grit. We won’t discuss times.

Here are the up close and personal recaps from these amazing ladies!

Colleen McGurk

Photo: Jay Mojica

Colleen:

The race was exactly what I expected so there were no surprises! Sweltering tough conditions!!

It was really hot so I started off a little slower then usual and planned to save some reserves for cat hill. Unfortunately, the heat and conditions caught up to me and I wasn’t able to pick it up. Actually the opposite happened!

I was about 50 seconds off my goal pace. Regardless, this race was very satisfying to me because I fought and pushed as hard as I have in a long time! This race was also all about teamwork and everyone gave it their all and pushed through and we placed!

I am so proud to be on CPTC and train with incredibly talented, determined runners!!

Judy: who had just run a PR in the 800m (2:27.51) and a top 10 for the 50+ women’s masters in the 1500m (5:06.90) at the USATF National Masters T&F Championships, as well as the 3000m at a track meet on Long Island this same week!

Nice job out there to everyone…we should be very proud to have placed so well in a highly competitive race!! It reminds me of the competition at National Club XC Champs (hint hint……SUPER fun!!)

After a very busy of week of racing for me…everything from the 800m & 1500m at Master’s Outoor Track Nats to a 3k in Long Island to the 5 miler Club Champs…I’m ready for a break! It was a sunny and hot day…great to be out there with my super star team-mates!! CONGRATS to all!!!!

Amy:

For a race with no expectations, no training, no hard runs since March and coming off an injury, I was pretty happy with the how the day went. I ran a really even race for the most part and my last mile was my best! Congrats to our scorers for the masters team! Way to carry us home!

Roberta: who also just ran the 800m in the USATF LI Open and Masters Championships. Earlier in July she ran her season best 800m in 2:38.62 in Icahn at the TNAR, and came in 2nd place in the 5k at Riverside Park!

I planned this race as a tempo run two days after I raced the 800 in Long Island. I had been dealing with some health issues all week…I told myself if I felt somewhat okay Saturday morning I would give it a go. Two miles in I knew I had made the wrong decision …my goal at that point was just to make it to the finish line. Congrats to everyone who competed under tough conditions!!!

Congrats to our 1st place 60+women and 40+men, as well as the open and masters women and men teams who also placed on the podium!

GO ORANGE!

Ani

From Ani Go:

It’s a new era for the women’s 50+ team! A perfect roster consisting of Judy S (also scoring for the 40+ women), Stacy Creamer, and Wanda Wang, brought their A game to the Team Champs!

As always, the weather was more fit for a day on the beach than dueling in the sun. But it is Team Champs, after all. Only the tough go out and execute despite conditions.

Stacy Creamer, who placed first in her age group in 36:29, had quite a race! Her report as follows:

Stacy Creamer

Photo: Nigel Francis

I had a great 2-mile warm-up before the race that included stops at the half-mile and four-and-a-half mile marks to cheer for our men’s teams. The difference in demeanors from the first spot and the second gave me the best caution possible about the heat.

On the bad side: it was hot! It was about 81 degrees when the women’s race went off at 9:30 am. On the good side: it wasn’t humid. I believe that the humidity was somewhere in the 40s. That said, the experience of running in that weather was that it was sappingly hot–especially so when the course poked out of the shade.

I felt strong and ready at the start. I’d last raced two weeks prior: the New York City Tri. I’d managed to sneak some speed work in between the two races but also fit in a nice taper. But only a quarter mile into the Club Team race I had the misfortune of falling! I was very boxed in, someone stepped in front of me; the next thing I knew I was down. I hit my left elbow and left buttock pretty hard. I got up as quickly as I could; the runners behing me were quite solicitous. Fortunuately, I didn’t take anyone down with me. Falling so early in a race is hardly auspicious but I shook it off as best as I could and set into a steady pace. My first mile split was 6:58–way under my planned pace for the first mile, even with the fall. If anything it was too fast. But I felt good and made use of the downhill second mile. I knew the tough mile for me would be mile four. Cat Hill. But the last mile was mainly downhill and I had Devon and the CPTC crew to look forward to at East 97th. Actually, CPTC men (and Audrey!) dotted the entire course, so I could hardly go half a mile without being met by enthusiastic cheers. I hung in up Cat Hill, recovered to about 86th Street, and then tried to take advantage of the speedy last mile. I wasn’t sure when my F55-59 competition crossed the starting line so even though I knew I was in the lead I also knew I couldn’t relax for a second.

I finished in 36:29–slower than I’d hoped but, given the heat and my fall, I was very pleased with it. Also, only two weeks earlier in the New York City Tri, I’d managed to crash my bike after hitting a cone. Very luckily I didn’t break anything but I got some cuts and required five stitches in my left knee. My doctor advised against doing anything for twelve days! Of course I didn’t follow his orders but my consequent training was a little proscribed. So all in all, I’m delighted with my race–and, more than usual, grateful to have made it to the starting line, and grateful to have made it to the finish.

Wanda Wang

Photo: Jay Mojica

Rounding out our 50+ threesome was Wanda Wang, who ran faster and faster the farther into the race she got. She finished in a time of 37:40; her last mile was 7:00.

Wanda simply states “Great team spirit! So happy that we have a strong 50+ team!”

Judy S, having scored both in 40+ and 50+, is double trouble–for the other teams that is! Judy just gets better and better and having need for speed, ran the 3000m at a Long Island track meet earlier this week, then came back from USATF National Masters T&F Championships where she ran a PR in the 800m (2:27.51) and a top 10 time for the 50+ women’s masters in the 1500m (5:06.90) .

Congrats, ladies!

Congrats to our open and masters women’s and men’s teams–podium finishes across the board!

GO ORANGE!!!

Ani

From Sylvie Kimche of the 60+:

On a sunny, hot but breezy and reasonably humid morning for early August, the CPTC “golden girls” did it again and took first W60+ place in the Team Championships 5 miler on Saturday morning.

6 runners toed the line. Unfortunately only 5 finished as Caryl was too bothered by the heat to cross the finish line. In fact of our 5 finishers, only 2 (Lynn and “yours truly”) seem to enjoy the race. Everyone else suffered from the heat….

Our top 3 finishers were again Barbara, Sylvie & Judith (what else is new?….well, one thing was new… there was no double -dipping this time by Barbara as the W50+ team had a full contingent of racers with new W50+ teammate extraordinaire, Judy Stobbe… See Ani’s report for the W50+ team!)

Barbara Byrne

Photo: Jay Mojica

Barbara was first for the team in 38:16, a 85.35% AG%…not a very good performance by Barbara’s standards, who suffered a lot from the heat and felt faint at the finish. It was still good for 2nd in her age group (to the amazing Kathryn Martin, 33:49, a 96.58% AG%…).

Sylvie Kimche

Photo: Jay Mojia

Sylvie, on the other hand, 2nd for the team and 1st in her W65-69 age group in 38:51(a 90.76% AG%) had a great race and felt strong to the end. (Believe me, after spending a lot of time with my ailing sister in hospitals and then in her home, I am thankful for being healthy and being able to run and enjoy life. May-be that’s what gave me extra enthusiasm & energy??? And the loud cheering by our CPTC men at the turn near 96th st also added to the euphoria…Thank you guys!!!

Judith Tripp

Photo: Nigel Francis

Judith did not enjoy the race any more than Barbara did. In her own words: “What a horrible race today! Why was it so difficult? It wasn’t as humid as it has been, right? I had terrible time”. She still managed 3rd for the team and 4th in the W65-69 age group but her pace was considerably slower than all her 2015 races…

X-C season will soon be here and with it, Judith should get her mojo back…

Deb, our 4th finisher, did considerable better in her 2nd race of the year than in her first, the Front Runners 5 miler at the end of June. She improved her time by more than 2 minutes (50:58 on Saturday vs 53:14 at the Gay Pride Run) and while she’s still far away from her speed of 5 yrs ago, before all her injuries, she’s healthy now and with a little help from Tony’s work-outs, she should get back to her fitness of yore in no time at all….

Our 5th finisher, Lynn was not bothered too much by the heat and had a great race. She has beautiful form and is a pleasure to watch running (or otherwise…). She was 4th in her W70-74 age group. She’s moving to the next age group at the end of August, and her time of 55:53 on Sat would have given her 1st place by more than a minute in the W75-79 age group. Way to go Lynn!

With this double point win (and with the NY Flyers, the team that was ahead of us, finishing only 3rd) the W60+ team is now comfortably in 1st place with 90 pts, NY Flyers 2nd with 83 pts and Van Cortland TC and Mercury Masters tied for 3rd with 58pts. When we remove one race, we are even further ahead CPTC 90pts, NY Flyers 71pts, VCTC 58pts & Mercury Masters 50pts.

We need to make sure we have a team for both the Bronx 10 miler and the Grete’s Half Marathon one week later. So far, we have a team for the Bronx 10 miler, but we’re short one runner for Grete’s….

By the way, I hope that this year’s schedule of 2 long team races one week apart is a fluke and that it will not happen in the years to come….

Congratulations to all the CPTC teams, men and women, who all “podiumed” as Stacy would say… 🙂

And thanks to Tony for his encouragements as usual and to our male teammates for all the loud cheering along the way and particularly at the 96th St turn.

Thanks also to Jay-r, Nigel, Andy and Hank for all the great photos (hope i didn’t forget anyone…)

In the meantime, stay healthy, stay hydrated and see you at the Fifth Avenue mile!

GO ORANGE

Sylvie

PS The new uniforms looked great too and this year our team photo did show a lot of ORANGE…Yeah… ☺
…with still a few weird green tees though…. \uD83D\uDE1E

Amy Kvilhaug

Photo: Andy Kiss